His journey is only beginning.

At 23 years old, Calvin ‘Elijah’ Briggs, Jr. was already building a life centered around storytelling, purpose, and possibility.

A filmmaker. A historian. A storyteller. A proud son, brother, and devoted uncle. A Clark Atlanta University film graduate and proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Alpha Phi Chapter — ‘God Did,’ the chapter’s solo initiate of Fall 2022.

Elijah is brilliant, curious, endlessly creative, and deeply kind. He is the kind of person whose energy fills a room — always laughing, dancing, cooking, or singing songs from his favorite musicals. He has a deep love for anime and Japanese culture and had begun learning Japanese, dreaming of one day traveling to Japan.

His creativity was never without purpose. Elijah was developing his first animated short series and building plans for Dia Ikigai, a brand inspired by the Japanese concept of ikigai — helping others discover their own path to purpose. He had spent years using his gifts to tell the stories of others and was only beginning to imagine all the ways he could use those gifts to tell stories of his own.

In 2026, Elijah graduated from Clark Atlanta University and was just one week away from moving across the country to begin graduate school when, on July 1, everything changed.

But Elijah’s story did not end that day.

To know Elijah is to know resilience. The same brilliance, joy, determination, and light that defined him before July 1 remain at the center of the fight ahead.

His life is not defined by what happened to him. His dreams are still his. His future is still worth fighting for. And his journey is only beginning.